'Fascist' Di Canio polarizes opinion

Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – Controversial Italian Paolo Di Canio has landed his second club manager's job with English Premier League side Sunderland.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – Di Canio caused controversy as a player after this "Roman salute" to his club Lazio's fans after a derby match against Roma in January 2005. He was later banned one match and fined for a similar gesture during a game against Livorno.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – Di Canio was a member of Lazio's notorious "Irriducibili" right-wing fan group before he became a successful player. This season the Italian club has been charged four times for racially offensive behavior by its supporters.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – His first English club was Sheffield Wednesday, where he received an 11-match ban after pushing referee Paul Alcock to the ground when he was sent off during a Premiership match against Arsenal on September 26, 1998.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – Although Di Canio has admitted to holding fascist beliefs and being "fascinated" by Italy's former dictator Benito Mussolini, he has always denied that he is a racist. Here he is pictured with former Sheffield Wednesday teammate Manuel Agogg in August 1997.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – He never represented his country at senior level, but Di Canio played for top Serie A sides Juventus and AC Milan beore moving to Britain.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – He was a cult hero at West Ham, where his spectacular goals and outrageous skills earned him the adulation of the fans.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – His arrival at Swindon in 2011 marked the departure of one of the club's sponsors in protest at his past statements about fascism, but Di Canio led the team out of England's bottom division as champions in his first season as manager. However, he dropped captain Paul Caddis (pictured) before the 2012-13 campaign started, and quit in February due to Swindon's financial problems -- and then had to break into his office to retrieve personal items after the locks were changed.

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Paolo Di Canio: 'Fascist not racist' – Di Canio was appointed by Sunderland a day after the club's collaboration with the Nelson Mandela foundation was officially launched at the home match against Manchester United. Vice-chairman David Miliband promptly quit, with the former MP -- who was a key figure in the club's involvement with the "Invest in Africa" initiative -- citing Di Canio's past statements about his political beliefs.

Story highlights

Media is "trying to make something out of nothing," one Sunderland fan says

"I'm not in the Houses of Parliament, I will only talk about football," says Di Canio

He sports a "Dux" tattoo and has expressed a fascination with Benito Mussolini. Meet Paolo Di Canio -- the new Sunderland manager who is proving a polarizing figure after his appointment by the struggling English Premier League club.

As his right-wing sympathies come under intense scrutiny, Di Canio says he only wants to talk about football -- though his controversial views threaten to overshadow his job of trying to keep Sunderland in the top flight.

"My life speaks for me so there is no need to speak any more about this situation because it is ridiculous and pathetic," Di Canio, who quit as manager of Swindon Town in England's third tier in February, told reporters.

"I can't every two weeks, every two months, every 10 months answer the same questions that are not really in my area."

In 2005 while playing for Lazio, the club he supported as a boy, Di Canio told Italian news agency ANSA, "I'm a fascist, not a racist," after making a straight-arm salute to Lazio fans in a game against city rival Roma.

A miners' association in the industrial north east of England region said it has written to Sunderland "demanding" the return of a banner at the club's Stadium of Light "in protest of the decision to appoint the self-confessed fascist, Paolo Di Canio." Sunderland's stadium was formerly the site of a coal mine.

"The appointment of Di Canio is a disgrace and a betrayal of all who fought and died in the fight against fascism," Dave Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, said on its website.

Such was the interest surrounding Di Canio's arrival at Sunderland, the site was overflowing with responses to the Italian's appointment.

Is Di Canio racist?

Given Italy's former fascist leader Mussolini enacted anti-Semitic laws and oversaw the deporting of thousands of Italian Jews to concentration and death camps, academic Kevin Passmore disagreed with the feeling of other Sunderland fans that Di Canio's political stance shouldn't have mattered when the club sought a new manager.

However as for Di Canio's claim that he was a fascist "but not a racist," Passmore acknowledged the 44-year-old may not be wrong.

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Di Canio -- still adored at West Ham, where he played for four years -- has attempted to quash suggestions he was a racist by claiming that two of his best friends during his playing career in England were black.

"Fascists did not agree what fascism was, and academics can't agree, either. So in principle, Di Canio could be right, and certainly Italian fascism was less racist than Nazism. However the story in practice could be different.

"These days, most people think that fascism does equal racism, rightly or wrongly, so one could argue that Di Canio is irresponsible," Passmore added.

"I also believe that a celebrity like him which has numerous fans in Italy and the UK should commit publicly to fight racism in football," said Testa, a lecturer at Brunel University in London.

Fans back Italian

After Di Canio quit Swindon in February, the club's former chief executive provided a graphic description of his management style.

"Paolo would chuck a hand grenade and I would do the repair work at the end, like the Red Cross," said Nick Watkins.

Janet Rowan, a season-ticket holder for nearly 20 years and secretary of a Sunderland supporters' association in Chester-le-Street, said Di Canio should not have been hired due to his lack of managerial experience.

Though Swindon was promoted from the fourth division as champion under Di Canio in 2012, he lasted less than two seasons and resigned amid uncertainty involving the club's ownership. He claimed, too, that a player had been sold behind his back.

"It's down to his footballing experience rather than anything to do with politics," said Rowan. "I think he's lacking in experience at the top level."

Simon Walsh, the 28-year-old editor of the Sunderland website Roker Report, said: "He's trying to be made out as an uber-fascist when he's not."

Fred Taylor, from Sunderland's Boldon supporters' association, also said that the media was "trying to make something out of nothing."

And Iain Dale, editor of website West Ham Till I Die and a radio broadcaster in London, wondered why Di Canio's past wasn't as intensely examined when he was in charge of Swindon.

Di Canio's forward play for West Ham, including a stunning volley he struck against Wimbledon in 2000 that is widely regarded as one of the greatest goals in Premier League history, hasn't been forgotten by West Ham's supporters.

"If you want to be consistent, have a front page when he's played in this country and when he's come to Swindon, not just when he's appointed manager of a Premier League club," said Dale.

When it comes to Di Canio, it seems, people will always agree to disagree.